Champagne and similar effervescent beverages are customarily bottled in glass containers having a tapered neck leading to a small opening at the top of the container. The container is customarily closed by a cork having a small diameter body and a larger diameter top, with an intervening downwardly facing shoulder. The body of the cork is inserted into the top opening of the container or bottle until the shoulder of the cork engages the top of the bottle. The cork is then wired to the bottle to retain the cork in the bottle during the time the wine ferments and generates the desired effervescent gases.
As gas pressure within the bottle increases, the body portion of the cork is compressed and expanded outwardly into the tapered neck of the bottle bottle such that the cork is wedged in the neck of the bottle by a force of such magnitude that the body of the cork, when released from the bottle, will have a diameter much greater than that of the opening in the top of the bottle. As a consequence, it can be extremely difficult and/or time consuming to remove the cork from the bottle.
Usually, a person presses both thumbs upwardly on the cork at the shoulder in an effort to pry the cork out, and/or attempts to twist the top of the cork in order (more or less) to screw the cork out of the bottle.
Both methods can be painful to the thumbs and hand and extremely frustrating, especially when a number of bottles have to be opened, for example, at a reception.